


ain't all its cracked up to be

by Audiospawn



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Pain, Redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5246828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Audiospawn/pseuds/Audiospawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>this game has changed me you guys</p><p>Anyways, this is my first fic.</p><p>I do want input from anyone who actually decides to read it tho.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The hoppening

Sans had always considered himself a good person in a bad situation. He wondered what Papyrus had thought of himself. Oh well.

The human had come through, had shown Papyrus a good time, played along with him, hell, they even tried “hanging out”, as Papyrus called it. Sans remembered how happy he was to see Papyrus come home, unharmed. This was gonna be one of the good ones, he had thought. It was a perfect time to prepare for when things go bad, like they always do. Sans had taken a nap on the couch to celebrate Papyrus not dying. He heard a knock at the door, but before he could answer it, Papyrus was already at the door. He opened the door.

“HELLO!? IS ANYONE THERE?” he shouted, looking around fervently. He felt a finger poke his leg bone gently.

“OH! HELLO THERE, HUMAN!!” he said loudly to the child below him. The child looked up and gave a friendly wave in response. “WHAT BRINGS YOU BACK HERE!?”

To this, the child responded by lying down in the snow and making snoring sounds. “UHH… SANS?! WHAT IS THE CHILD DOING!? ARE THEY OKAY!?” he asked Sans.

Sans got up from the couch, awake from the commotion, stretched a bit, and then appeared by Papyrus’ side. He looked at the child, making a big show of sleeping in the snow, and chuckled softly.

He looked at Papyrus and said: “I think they want to crash at our place.”

“CRASH!? IS THE CHILD GOING TO EXPLODE!?”

“No, no, they want to take a nap here.”

“WHA!?”

“They want to sleep here, papyrus. They’re tired and cold. Perfect time for a _warm_ reception.”

At this obviously terrible joke, Papyrus screeched Sans’ name. He then looked at the child. “DO YOU WANT TO STAY IN OUR HOUSE, HUMAN!?”

They nodded.

“THEN ITS SETTLED. WE SHALL BE… UHH…-“

“the guys who let this child stay here?”

“EXACTLY, SANS! WE SHALL BE THE HOSTS!!”

He took a deep breath and posed dramatically. “HUMAN!!! WE SHALL WELCOME YOU INTO OUR HUMBLE ABODE!! WE DO NOT HAVE MUCH, BUT YOU MAY MAKE THE COUCH’S ACQUAINTANCE. IT IS VERY FORTUNATE FOR YOU TO HAVE SHOWED UP BECAUSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM MAKING MY MOST FAMOUS CULINARY TREAT TOMORROW!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS!?"

The child tilted their head to one side, and then made a slurping sound with their lips, while making a motion as if turning a fork. The child tilting their head like that sent a chill down Sans' spine for some reason.

“YES, CHILD!! THAT’S RIGHT!! SPAGHETTI!! DO YOU WANT TO HELP ME PREPARE MY MASTERPIECE, HUMAN!?” The child jumped up and down and clapped their hands, which made Sans chuckle heartily.

They were fine, what was there to worry about. Sans was afraid of a timeline that hadn’t come yet, why not live in the moment?

The child stifled a yawn and shivered a bit.

“Uhh, papyrus?”

“OH YES, RIGHT! COME ON IN, CHILD! MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME! MY HOME.”

“Err, our home”

The child came in and bounced on the couch for a bit, then ran their fingers across it, and sat on the softest spot.

“Hold on a sec, kid.”

Sans went up to his room. He looked around, and then pulled the carpet back, and then pulled open the floorboards in a certain spot. The entire floor had things hidden in various secret compartments. Even Papyrus didn’t know about this, not that most of the stuff in here would interest him. Sans looked and found an old blanket that was given to him by…someone. It would do. He replaced the floorboards, and walked down the stairs. Papyrus was showing the child the local television shows. The kid looked ready to collapse.

“Here kid, you can have this for right now.”

He handed the child the dusty black blanket. They gave him a smile and a nod in response. Sans felt a warm sensation inside of him, one that only Papyrus normally caused. He walked over to the child and gave them a hug, to which the child hugged him back.

“Enjoy your stay, kiddo.”, Sans said, his voice trembling a bit.

“DON’T FORGET ABOUT MY HUG, SANS!!” Papyrus said enviously. Sans hugged him too. Papyrus didn’t question why Sans had hugged the child, and Sans knew why.

Sans could feel himself starting to cry.

“Anyways, you going to bed, papyrus?”

NOT TONIGHT, SANS. I MUST WATCH OVER THE CHILD AND KEEP THEM SAFE FROM ANYONE WHO WOULD DO THEM HARM!” he said, valiantly.

Sans didn’t dare laugh, because he knew Papyrus was being completely serious. That was fine. Sans didn’t really feel like reading a story to Papyrus tonight anyway.

“You keep them safe then, pap. I’m gonna go do nothing in my room, okay?”

“REMEMBER SANS, TOMORROW AT-“

“2 pm, yeah, I know. I’ll be awake papyrus. night.”

“GOODNIGHT SANS.” Sans nodded and looked over to the child.

Despite their conversation, the child was fast asleep. Sans shook his head and felt a pain in his ribs, one that he knew all too well.

With a wave of his bony hand, he went up the stairs and to his room. Inside, he took the ball of wadded sheets off of his mattress. Underneath them was a notebook for this timeline. He wrote down that the child had decided to stay with them this time, and wondered what this could mean. More importantly, when would the child reset? They seemed genuinely excited to help Papyrus make spaghetti, so maybe it was safe to sleep tonight?

Yeah. Probably. The child wasn’t evil this time around, if anything, they seemed to be benevolent. Maybe a nap would do him some good. He closed the notebook, opened the floorboards, put it in its other hiding spot, and unraveled the sheets for the first time in what felt like years, put the pillow on the mattress, and sat on top of the sheets. He lifted the floorboards and found his old alarm clock. He set it for seven hours later.

He got under the sheets and tried to think about what to do tomorrow, but he had already fallen asleep.

He woke up to the sound of Papyrus talking to human about their plans for the day. Good. It hadn’t been a dream after all. Sans chuckled to himself.

The alarm clock didn’t even work anymore. He put it back where it belonged.

Welp.

The child would probably reset after they made spaghetti with Papyrus. Or maybe they wouldn’t.

Either way, Papyrus wasn’t expecting him to be awake for quite a while, so why not take advantage?

Sans lifted the floorboards again. He found four weights.

“Let’s see here… 25 pounds. That’s 11 kilograms. Nah. Too light."

"50 pounds. That’s 23 kilograms. Still too light."

"100 pounds. 45 kilograms. Too heavy."

"75 pounds. 34 kilograms. 5 stone.” **_Perfect._**

This was about how much the child weighed, according to his notes. His gravity powers seemed to put the most strain on his body, so why not practice them first?

He put the other weights away. They would be used at some other time. With a flick of his wrist, the weight was lifted into the air.

He stopped it before it could hit the ceiling.

“Control. This is what I need. If i just send it crashing through the walls, not only will pap notice, but I won’t improve."

"Maybe my training doesn’t persist across timelines anyways?"

"eh. I can’t think of anything else that seems worth doing.”

With that, he brought the weight down, stopping it before it could hit the floor. He stopped the tornado of garbage by making a gesture with his free hand. He brought the weight back to the middle of the room, then swung it to his left, stopping it just before it hit the wall, then swung it to the right, doing the same thing.

He started doing it faster. Faster and faster. Each time he swung it, the weight screeched to a stop, inches in front of the floor, walls and ceiling.

In the back of his head, he could hear Papyrus talking to the human.

 

“ALRIGHT, HUMAN! FIRST, I NEED YOU TO SALT THE PAN!”

The child took the salt shaker, and shook it into the empty pan. Papyrus lifted it up to the sink and filled it with water.

He pulled it back down and set it on the stovetop.

“EXCELLENT WORK, HUMAN!!” he said. To this, child bowed, looking proud of themselves.

“NOW, WE MUST MAKE THE MEATBALLS!!”

Sans chuckled to himself. Things were different, why bother training? Maybe his reports were wrong maybe-

The child appeared in the corridor. Covered in dust and shambling forward without regard for anything in the world, except its desire to kill.

Papyrus was dead because of this child.

Undyne was dead.

The woman behind the door was dead.

Everyone was _dead_.

All of them, **_dead_** , because of one child.

“That expression on you face… you’re really kind of a freak, aren’t you?” Sans whispered, eyes not showing the fear in his heart.

The child tilted its head to one side and then let out a laugh that sounded…animal like, almost as if it weren’t a human but a demon in disguise.

The child ran its fingers across the knife it was holding, and its blood came oozing out of the cut it made onto the knife.

The child looked at Sans like a cat does at its prey, with a smile wider than should have been possible.

“here we go.”

Sans kept having these visions, and tried to convince himself that they were just that, visions.

But his notes confirmed that the visions did and would actually happen.

He slammed the child against the walls of the cathedral, the sound of flesh hitting bone ringing in his mind.

The child screamed and laughed. It was a sound that Sans would never forget, haunting his nightmares.

He swung the child around, faster and faster.

Harder and harder.

Each time they hit the wall, the screams got a bit quieter.

He slammed them into the floor as hard as he could, and the child crashed right through it…..

wait.

 _Crashed right through it_?

**_SHIT._ **

The weight crashed through the carpeted floor, the sound of wood splintering following it. nonononononononononoNoNoNoNONONONONONONO

Sans heard a sickening thud, and then the sound of Papyrus screaming.

Sans had always considered himself a good person.


	2. Break or be broken, the rule left unspoken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sans fekd up last time

“Reset.”

“Come on, kid. Reset.”

 **RESET**.

_**RESET** _

_**RESET WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR** _

_**RESET** _

**THIS ISNT FUNNY KID**

Sans felt that chill down his spine again…

“Something’s wrong…”

“Shouldn’t they have reset by now?”

“Maybe I didn’t hit the kid?”

“Oh no…”

“Ugh…”

“Here we go…”

Sans descended down the stairs.

He found what he was looking for.

Yep.

He hadn’t hit Papyrus after all.

The kid was hurt.

Badly. Really, really badly.

Blood was pouring out of the kid’s head, which seemed to be dented somewhat.

Well that’s just great.

The kid was completely motionless… except for Papyrus shaking them…

Their eyes were closed, and they didn't seem to be breathing.

(“Alright. Just stay calm…”)

(“Wait… Hmm…”)

“SANS!!! THE HUMAN STOPPED MOVING!!! AND THERE’S ALL THIS RED STUFF COMING OUT OF THEM!! THEY WON’T TALK TO ME, SANS!! A BIG, SHINY ROCK CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING AND HIT THEM!! THEY’VE STOPPED MOVING, SANS!!!”

There were tears in Papyrus' eyes.

“Alright, pap. I know this looks grim but-“

“SANS! WHAT DID I DO!? THEY WON’T WAKE UP, NO MATTER HOW MUCH I KEEP SHAKING THEM!”

“Ugh. Alright, Papyrus, I need you to-“

“SANS! I’VE TRIED EVERYTHING TO GET THEM TO WAKE UP! I EVEN TRIED ASKING THEM TO MAKE THE MEATBALLS BUT THEY WON’T LISTEN TO ME!”

“Papyrus, if you’d just let me-“

“SANS! I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO! SHOULD I CALL SOMEONE!? WHO CAN HELP!? WHY IS THE HUMAN DOING THIS!? WHERE DID THAT SHINY ROCK COME FROM!? WHY ARE YOU SWEATING SO MUCH!? I DON’T WANT MY FRIEND TO DIE SANS!! SANS I DON’T UNDERSTA-“

“ _ **PAAAAAAPYRUUUUUUUUUUS!!!!**_ ”, Sans bellowed as loud as his body permitted.

Papyrus looked as if he had been struck in the face with a particularly large and heavy blunt object.

Sans felt a tinge of guilt shoot through him.

He never raised his voice, let alone shouted, at anyone, especially not Papyrus.

All this work was taking its toll on him.

“Sans, I…”

“Listen to me very carefully, Papyrus.”

Papyrus wiped his face with his scarf and set the child down as gently as possible on the floor, blood still oozing out of their head, pooling into a puddle beneath them.

“Y-yes, Sans?”

This was becoming physically painful.

“Papyrus. The human has been hurt really bad. That stuff they’re losing is called blood. It keeps humans alive. If a human loses too much blood, they die. Do you understand, Papyrus?”

“Oh no… Sans, I… I…”

More tears were welling up in his face.

“Stay with me, Papyrus. I need you to do something for me, okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You need to stop the bleeding. I have a set of bandages under the floorboards in my room. Use them to slow down the bleeding, okay? The slower the kid loses blood, the better our chances are of saving them. Take this.”

He handed Papyrus his room key.

“I’ll do my very best, Sans. I don’t want to lose such a special friend…”

Sans sighed.

“Alright, Papyrus. I know this is a lot to take in but I trust you and I want you to know that I lo-“

“Sans?”

“Yeah, Papyrus?”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna go get help, okay? I’m counting on you bro.”

“I won’t lose them Sans. I… I promise.”

“I’ll be right back, Papyrus. I believe in you.”

And with that, Sans was gone.

 

 

Papyrus looked at human on the kitchen floor, covered in blood and motionless.

“D-don’t worry, my friend! I, the gre- the great Papyrus, will have you f- fixed up faster than you can say spaghetti…”

Papyrus ran up the stairs to Sans room and unlocked the door.

“UGH! WHAT A MESS!! I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW SANS CAN… Oh… right.”

“Uhh… How do I remove the carpet?”

 

 

Sans slammed the door behind him.

He felt like garbage for leaving Papyrus alone like that, but it was the only option he had.

But who would be able to help with this?

None of the guard dogs…

Definitely not Grillby…

Undyne? Nah, she'd just make things worse.

Maybe there was someone in town who-

“Wait a minute…”

The woman behind the door.

Maybe she had an answer?

Welp.

It was worth a shot.

What did he have to lose?

But why hadn’t the kid reset?

A question for later.

“This is why I hate breaking promises.”

Wait. What would he tell her?

How would she react upon finding out that he-

NO. He had to hurry.

In the blink of an eye, he was there.

It was very cold.

Probably because it was really early.

Most of the monsters were probably still asleep.

“Here goes nothin.”

Sans cracked his knuckles, and pounded on the purple door.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

No response.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Still nothing. Sans put his head to the door.

Not a creature was stirring. Not even a mouse.

“Welp.”

“Here goes nothing.”

With that, he summoned the largest, thickest bone he could manage, and caught it in his arms.

(“ I’m gonna be _bone_ tired by the end of the day…”)

He laughed somberly to himself, and then hurled the bone as hard he could at the door.

“GUUUUAAAAAAGGHH!!”

The bone crashed into the door.

BOOOOOOOMSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSSH!!!!

The impact shook the entire area around him, shaking almost all of the snow off of the trees and knocking him flat on his rear.

“Whew.”

The door had a small crack in it.

Sans chuckled to himself, more out of frustration than anything else.

What a durable door.

The bone disappeared.

“Ugh. This was pointless. What the hell was I thinkin’? There’s no way she’d be awake this early anywa-“

He heard something.

 _A_ _voice_.

“Oh my… Who is that making such a racket this early in the morning?”

As if on cue, Sans stood up straight.

He shook the snow out of his slippers and jacket.

“Hello?”

“Is anyone there?”

“Uhh… Knock knock.”

“Oh! Who’s there?”

“Help.”

“Uhm.. Help.. who???”

“I need your help.”

“Oh! Is that why you woke me up? Well I’m afraid there isn’t much I can do for you at the moment… Unless you have something that you need to talk about.”

“Uhh… yeah.”

“And so early in the morning, too! It must be very important. Well, I am here for you, my friend.”

“You don’t sound all that angry about it.”

“Oh! Well, I actually haven’t had much to do lately, ever since… Well, what would you like to talk about?”

This was not going well.

“It’s an emergency, Ma’am.”

Her tone suddenly changed to a worried one.

“Whatever is the matter? Are you lost? Do you need help wi-“

“There’s been an accident.”

She was silent for a moment.

“Please continue.”

“Uhh… Well I, uh…”

“Do not test my patience. What has happened?”

Her lovely voice had suddenly turned very stern.

“You know how I promised to protect any humans that came through here?”

“I do.”

“Well, I invited a human over to my house and we chatted a bit and-“

“AND?”

(“ _shit_ ”)

“Uhh, something smashed through the ceiling and hit them. Really hard. And now they arent moving anymo-“

The door had swung open before he could finish, knocking him back on his rear.

“oww…” he said, clutching his skull.

He looked at the woman before him.

She was… furrier than he expected.

Taller too. He felt like recognized her somehow… As if he had seen her before…

That robe she was wearing looked familiar to him as well, especially the emblem on it… Maybe he had-

“Take me to them.”

“Huh?”

“TAKE ME TO THEM!”

There was a look in her maroon eyes that he couldn’t describe, but it made him very nervous.

“Well I uh…”

The glare she was giving him could have melted the Core.

“Take my hand, lady.”

He offered his bony hand, which she accepted quickly.

“We must hurry. Every second you waste is another-“

“Just close your eyes and trust me.”

“…”

He took a shortcut.

“You can open ‘em now.”

“I don’t – what? Where… Where are we? Where is my child?”

 _Her_ child?

“In there.”

She had already opened the door before he finished speaking.

This was gonna be a long day.

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys are wondering about the title, its a variation of "kill or be killed".
> 
> I'm not sure where I should go from here
> 
> I'm even less sure if I captured the spirit of the characters right
> 
> Also yeah Toriel's pretty upset but its only cause she's worried.
> 
> also should Sans tell the truth
> 
> I might finish this someday


End file.
